Volusia County looks to act on sales tax vote this year

Looking for more money to fix roads, improve water infrastructure and speed up existing projects, Volusia County and city officials are preparing to ask voters this year to approve a half-cent sales tax that's expected to generate $42 million a year over the next two decades.

The question could go before voters as early as spring as part of a special election that would cost as much as $548,000.

"I think May is achievable," County Chair Ed Kelley said, noting that the bulk of the planning was completed last year, cities still appear to be on board, and the results of a new survey provide optimism that the measure will pass. "A special election would be the way to go. We really don’t want to wait until 2020."

Representatives from Volusia's 16 cities and the county will be meeting at noon Monday at Daytona Beach International Airport to determine when the vote will occur. No one wants it in summer, when many residents may be away from home. The question is whether to move quickly or wait until the fall.

Another question will be what kind of vote to hold. Elections Supervisor Lisa Lewis said a mail-in ballot would cost $490,000, while opening up precincts and staffing them would cost a little bit more, at roughly $548,000.

The meeting will start with some good news from a recent study conducted by Clearview Research. Kent Sharples of the CEO Business Alliance, which paid for a December 2017 telephone survey of 600 residents, will present the results of an update the research firm completed last month. The key question was how the public would respond to the question of a tax after the county delayed taking up the question of raising impact fees on developers.

"The response is still positive; even more so," Sharples said.

[Read: Volusia County’s sales tax talks return]

Officials will have to move fast if they decide they want a spring vote. The cities and the county still need to come to terms on a list of priorities and hold a series of workshops to inform residents of the plans for how the money will be divided, based on population, if the vote passes.

Another complicating factor: A new law requires the state's Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to conduct an audit before any new sales taxes are created. Results of the audit must be published on the county’s website for 60 days before the referendum goes before the voters.

While it’s unclear how long it would take OPPAGA to complete that audit, there’s plenty of time to get all of it done before school lets out for the summer months, said Joe Yarbrough, the recently retired South Daytona city manager who’s been leading the charge for the sales tax and has vowed to stay on until the vote.

“It will be up to the mayors to decide how they want to proceed and when they want to hold the special election," he said. "It could be before school is out for summer, or it could be after school starts back."

Not everyone is optimistic that the vote can come together before the summer. Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette said September or October seem more plausible.

"I think the spring would be too soon," he said. "It’s more important to do it right than to do it quick. If we don’t do it right then we’ve absolutely wasted everyone’s time. The voters have to have something comprehensive."

Volusia officials feel they've already lost a year — and the higher turnout that would have been assured with a vote in November's general election. While Yarbrough managed to wrangle support from all the cities last year, public outcry over the County Council's reluctance to raise impact fees stirred fear that the vote might fail. In May, days before the county council was set to take the final step, city leaders pumped the brakes and asked the county to raise its impact fees first.

[Read: Volusia mayors: Postpone half-cent sales tax vote]

The County Council voted in October to raise impact fees for the first time since 2003 by more than 100 percent in some categories. While that is expected to bring in an additional $7 million per year, officials on all sides agree more money is needed. With gas tax revenues failing to keep up with population growth and rising construction costs, the county and cities have been talking for years about a sales tax boost for roads and other infrastructure needs.

Even though cities and the county will have some new elected representatives, Yarbrough said he doesn't have any reason to believe the push has lost support from any government body.

DeLand Mayor Bob Apgar, who chairs the monthly meetings of mayors, said most of the planning has already been completed and that the delay last year was more of a "time out" than a "cease and start over."

The bulk of the remaining work aside from the OPPAGA audit of the county, he said, is for the cities and the counties to establish their priority lists so the public knows how the money will be used.

"It’s got to happen before the vote," said Apgar, who sees a May election as a possibility. "People have to be comfortable with how their community is going to spend the money. People are going to personalize this. They are going to ask: How does this benefit me?"